Dot Hack Fault
by notasquirt
Summary: After the incident of Pluto’s Kiss a conference was called within CyberConnect Corps. It was decided that any large scale online games would pose too much of a risk and opportunity for net terrorism to take place... THE WORLD is the only MMORPG left...
1. LOG IN

**.1 LOG IN**

"Thank you very much dad. " I said cheerfully, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. It was my 15th birthday and he had just bought me a new computer. My old one had died during the cyber attack known as Pluto's Kiss, two years ago. The stupid thing fried the motherboard and with the internet basically off limits to the general public, there was no real point in getting a new one. At least Until CC Corp. came out with the new ALTIMIT OS this year. Invincible to both viruses and hackers, it was the perfect OS that let the internet back into the daily lives of those who had lived so long without it.

"Ah, don't mention it." He grinned, pulling the small box CPU from the box, tearing the thin Styrofoam sheets off of it. I grabbed a few more books off of my cluttered desk and set them in a larger cardboard box. Those would end up on a shelf soon. My dad put the CPU down on the top of the desk and connected two of the wires to the back.

"Here, put some life into it." He said, handing me the plugs. I knelt down under the top of the desk and plugged them into the outlet. I could hear the hum of the computer as it started up. As I crawled out from beneath the desk, dad was hooking up the display; a nice 13 inch one too. The ALTIMIT logo flew up onto the screen while the data loaded.

"The graphics are so crisp." I commented. Indeed they were. The blue screen disappeared and a multitude of 3D icons spun around the screen before coming to a rest at the left side of the screen.

"Well, you have fun," my dad said giving me a pat on the shoulder, "I'm gonna go run a couple errands while you get this system figured out." I nodded, giving him another hug before he turned to leave. I took a seat in my computer chair and connected the last parts that were from my old PC. Thankfully keyboards, computer mouses, and speakers didn't need to be upgraded when all computers changed to ALTIMIT. Well, the speakers weren't exactly necessary for this model. The sides of the display screen had built in speakers, but I like to have my music at the best quality, something side speakers kind of ruined.

I looked back into the box that held the computer equipment for years, and noticed a white envelope with a red ribbon around it, underneath a batch of cords. I pushed them aside, and grabbed the envelope. It had my name written in scrawling script that I realized was my aunt's. I tore it open, pulling what looked like a credit card and a folded note. I set the card on the desk and unfolded the note:

**Dear Catharine,**

**Happy birthday my wonderful niece! I hope you enjoy the computer your father bought for you. Now I know a computer isn't much fun without any games, so I've enclosed a debit card for your use. There's 100 on it, so use it wisely and don't get too carried away. And don't buy anything your dad or I **

**would find inappropriate. You know what I'm talking about. Be responsible and have fun!**

**Your loving Aunt Judy ()**

I laughed, looking back at the card. In a way, my Aunt Judy is like my foster mother away from home. My mother became very ill had to be admitted to the hospital. She died a few months later after suffering a stroke and was declared brain dead. My dad tried to overrule her decision to have her life support shut off if she was ever considered brain dead, but the courts denied his request.

I've never held it against my dad. It wasn't his fault my mother went behind his back. But that left us with a good sum of money, with not much to do with it. My Aunt (my mom's sister) volunteered to step in and help my dad with finances and usually comes to visit during the holidays. Still, my dad and I live together in this three bedroom apartment out of necessity. If we were to dive into the money the insurance company gave us after mom's death, it'd feel like we were grateful she died. So my dad, Aunt Judy and I worked it out so that the money would go towards my schooling and his retirement. He still had quiet a few years until retirement, but he said it was just a safe guard incase anything came up. Aunt Judy wanted nothing in return, but my dad insisted he put away a nice sum for her to have access to if she ever needed it.

This year Aunt Judy couldn't make it to my birthday, due to work, but she promised she'd make it up to me. And a 100 debit card was a damn good gift to make up with.

I turned to my computer and scrolled through the different pre-installed programs with the thin silver left and right buttons on the sides of my mouse. _Ah ha, here we go…_ I thought finding the mail application. I typed up her up a quick thank you note, making sure to lay the appreciation on thick:

**Dear Judy,**

**Thank you so very much for the great gift! I love it! Don't worry; I won't buy any of those obscene Chinese comic books you hate so very much, : - )!**

I laughed. About a month ago, Aunt Judy had come for a slightly unexpected visit. I had just recently bought myself a copy of Negima! a pretty well know Japanese graphic novel, that she had just happened to pick up and page through. I think she was embarrassed to see that I owned a copy of it, but she didn't scold me. She just questioned my father about my fascination with "Chinese comic books" and "why do they feel the need to put naked women in them". My dad laughed at her reaction and said he didn't really mind what I read, though it was a slight surprise. She still gets red every time I mention it.

**Really, thank you, and I'll make sure not to waste it! I'll even show you how to play whichever game I decide on!**

**:)**

**-Your extremely appreciative niece, Catharine hugs**

I sent it off, leaning back in my chair. It'd been so long since I'd been on the web; I didn't know what type of game to download. I fired up the search engine and looked for _popular games_. Instantly I became confused. There was only one definite result while the others linked to news articles. I clicked one of the news articles and briefly scanned through it. One paragraph caught my eye in particular:

"_After the incident of _Pluto's Kiss _a conference was called within CyberConnect Corps. lead programmers. It was decided that any large scale online games would pose too much of a risk and opportunity for net terrorism to take place. CC Corps. Lead Representatives suggest that with the new operating system (now a world wide model), there is no room for net terrorism to occur. They also state that they have done testing in the past for their beta game, Fragment and that with programming unique to their company, have been able to avoid any viruses or hacking._

_Other companies that produce online games such as these (know also as MMORPGs) have not been able to produce such claims, and therefore been told to take their games offline…_

…_As of right now, the only MMORPG in the world is CC Corps. "THE WORLD"…_

"Well then, I guess I'll have to try this thing out." I said to myself, clicking back to the results page. The one link at the top of the page no longer looked surprising. I browsed through the webpage's information on the game and the basic system requirements, as well as the download section. I keyed in the number on the debit card, along with my email and IP address. Within seconds the game was installed and the splash screen painted onto the display. Apparently, if you have a Playstation 2, ALTIMIT has a nice little USB plug that the PS2 controller can be plugged into, and used for THE WORLD.

I looked over into the computer box again. It took a fare amount of digging and cord untangling, but I managed to get one of the controllers out of the mess. The left joystick didn't move to well, but I hoped it'd work well enough. I didn't have any of the gamer goggles the site advertised, but if I liked the game enough, I guessed I could look for a pair of used ones at the local Game Stop over the weekend. Thankfully the game didn't cost that much.

I toggled the right joystick and selected CREATE A NEW CHARACTER. First, I had to decide on a username and a character name. The game had different language selections, so I quickly flipped to English, and made it easy and made them both the same, typing it in through the letter selection on the screen.

WELCOME MIDORI. PLEASE DECIDE ON YOUR CHARACTER CLASS. I looked at the selection of "classes" trying to make heads or tales of what they meant.

"What the hell's a Wavemaster?" I asked no one in particular. I flipped back to the website for the game and clicked the GAME INFO tab. Apparently, each one of the classes is a different type of weapon user. A Wavemaster was a magic user and a Long Arm was a spear user. I could figure out the rest just based on their names.

* * *

"Man, which one…" I selected the FEMALE gender, and was shocked to see a girl avatar with less clothing than a bikini.

"Geez, what were the programmers? Perverts!? Well, I guess I shouldn't talk…" I scrolled through the different clothing options. I finally decided on a dark purple sleeveless turtle neck and a black skirt with red trimming. I also threw on a pair of black leggings underneath that reached the center of her calf. I made her hair short and mousy to match my own originally, but nixed the idea once I saw the ornate styles and colors that could be used for hair. I eventually decided on longer light purple hair that reached the middle of her back, held together with a gold clip near her shoulder blades.

Satisfied with the major design, I toggled the selection to DETAILS. According to the instructions you can add things like belts, jewelry, and tattoos, as well as select unique eye colors. I quickly flipped back and shortened the bottom of her turtle neck, revealing her navel, and selected a thin red belt to go around the bottom of the shirt. I added tattoos that looked like two red claw marks on her shoulders and a so-purple-it's-nearly-black one over her left eye. I decided on piercing red eyes instead of the original green ones.

"That looks good." I sighed, happy that my avatar didn't look like a tramp. But, I still hadn't decided on a class, and that would affect certain attributes of her appearance and abilities. I toggled to Long Arm, and a long silver spear appeared in her hand. The idea of using a spear in combat didn't really appeal to my so I toggled again, to Twin Blade this time. Along with the two ruler length daggers in each of her hands, her skirt had been shortened up to the middle of her thigh. Frowning, I toggled to Blademaster. Her skirt returned to normal and the two smaller blades were replaced by one long, wicked looking one. I liked how that looked, so I glanced over at the stats of the class.

"Well that's good." I sighed. Her stats placed her in an equally balanced range between offensive and defensive as well as magic and physical attacks.

I selected the SAVE CHARACTER button.

"Might as well actually start playing." I selected the LOG IN button and the US server.

**WELCOME TO THE WORLD, MIDORI**


	2. NOAH

**2. NOAH**

"Hey there, you new?" I blinked. No one was in front of me, so where'd the voice come from? I was standing in front of a large spinning ring that hovered a few feet off the ground. Players kept running up to it and disappearing. It must have been some sort of transportation device. I turned my attention back to finding out where the voice came from. I tried moving the left joystick, but instead of turning the camera to the right, the entire screen moved forward.

"Use the second left button on the top of the controller to change your view. My guess is it'll be easier to see that way. " There it was again.

"Well, guess it wouldn't hurt to try." I pressed the second left button and suddenly I could see my character in front of me, as well as see a sea of people running to and from the ring. Only one person stood still other than me.

"My name's Noah." His voice came through my speakers, clear as a bell. I managed to turn my character to face him using the key pad above the left joystick. I suddenly noticed the chat box in the bottom corner of the screen, so I set the controller down and typed a quick reply in.

**I'm Midori**

"Lemme guess, you don't have any goggles." I frowned. I could literally hear the smirk in his voice.

**Screw you; I haven't gone out to get any yet… XP**

"Well, anyways, we should get away from the Chaos Gate. Follow me." His character turned and ran down a flight of steps into the town, before stopping and turning around.

"You don't know how to move yet do you?" Even though he was far enough away where he should have had to shout for me to hear, when he talked it sounded like he was right next to me. I could hear him sigh and I guessed he was rolling his eyes at me.

**Heaven forbid…**

"Just use the left joystick or the keypad to move." I managed to get my character moving, and ran up beside him.

**How's that?**

"Perfect." His avatar smiled, and then turned toward the bridge. There were a few players strolling aimlessly or chatting with other players. I made a mental note to go out and get a pair of those goggles soon. It was going to be much harder to play if I had to key everything I wanted to say manually.

"This your first time playing?"

**Yep. Why are you helping me?**

"If you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly a player made for physical combat." I switched back to the first camera mode to have a good look at his character. He had light aqua colored hair that stuck out at weird angles in the back and deep green eyes. He was dressed in a dark green vest with a high collar and brown fingerless gloves that stopped at his wrist. Each arm had three green hexagon tattoos on the upper part of the arm. His pants were the same color as his shirt, with the same light green hexagons as the ones on his arms, printed on them. Under his right eye there was an outline of a blue triangle.

**You a Wavemaster?**

He made his avatar nod. "Only I don't use staffs. Well sometimes I do, but that's when I'm in a pinch and need some extra spells."

I nodded, myself, but my avatar just stood there.

**Oh. So what's that got to do w/ me again?**

"After you get hand on how to play, you could become a valuable teammate. Blademasters are good party members for Wavemasters."

**Party members?**

"It's when you team up with other people to go on quests or try and defeat dungeons that would normally be to dangerous for a single player to handle. Being in a party with someone stronger than you is a nice way to level up quickly."

**Am I in a party with you right now?**

"Not exactly. You need this first." A window popped up onto my screen.

**YOU NOW HAVE NOAH'S MEMBER ADRESS.**

"Whenever you'd like to form a party with me or anyone else, ask for their member address. Or give them yours. That way, you can converse with just those in your party and exchange emails."

**Nice. Thanx :D**

"You really need to get a headset…"

**XP I'll bike to GS tomorrow**

"I'll show you how to fight monsters tomorrow then. Trust me, in a fight there's no time to type messages."

**Okay, what can you teach me until I get one?**

He paused for a moment, probably thinking. "You know how to target stuff, right?"

**Yep**

"Do you know how to look through menus?"

**No**

"Okay, hit the triangle button…"

* * *

"So do you think you'll be ready to go out to a field tomorrow?" Both Noah and I were sitting at the edge of the river that flowed through the center of Mac Anu. He'd made sure to teach me enough of the character actions, but keeping up with all of the information he was throwing at me was making my head swim.

**I might need a refresher course tomorrow…**

He laughed, a clear, happy sound through my speakers. "Well, don't worry. It'll get easier the more you play."

**I sure hope so**

"I have to log out, my mom's yelling at me to finish homework…" His avatar frowned and he ran towards the Chaos Gate, "I'll see you tomorrow," he turned and waved. His avatar disappeared in rings of light.

"Might as well log out myself." I said selecting LOG OUT from the main menu. I stopped by the boards glancing through some of the posts, stopping at one in particular.

"What the hell?"

"**COMA"**


	3. SCHOOL DAYS

3. SCHOOL DAYS

"Catharine? Whoo hoo, ya home?" I lifted my head from my desk, yawning and rubbing at my blurry eyes.

"What is it Grace?" I grumbled. I was having a really nice dream, which my friend had once again managed to interrupt.

"Why so tired? Stay up late watching the DVDs I gave you?" She asked pulling her chair up next to my desk, leaning in on her elbows until her face was inches away from mine.

"Way too close!" I growled , playfully pushing her a few inches back by her forehead, "and for your information, no I didn't. Sorry, I'll watch them soon. Higurashi really does seem interesting." I quickly added the last part when she pouted at me.

"Why do you take forever and a day to watch the things I give you?" I rolled my eyes, eying the open notebook on her lap.

"Because, unlike some people, I actually _do_ my homework." Her face flushed and scrunched up her face, sticking her tongue out at me.

"Excuse me for having a life." She scoffed, scribbling a few more answers on the page. I rolled my eyes a second time. Grace had always had bad time management skills and was a procrastinator at heart, something I should have been annoyed by, but she was just as kind hearted and caring as she was good at making excuses.

"All right, fine, I'll help you." I sighed. Thankfully she was almost done. I prayed Lit. was the only subject she'd decided to wait until the last moment to finish. Literally a few seconds after I helped explain the answer to the final problem, our teacher stepped in and clapped her hands.

For a freshmen teacher, Ms. Kendal was quite young. She looked to be in her early 20s but insisted on keeping her age a secret. What was more disturbing then her young appearance, was the number of guys who made lewd comments behind her back.

"Alright, who here finished the assignment for today? I hope you all understand this is a good portion of your grade right here." The majority of the class raised their hands, except for a few kids near the back.

"Brent?" Everyone in the class turned around in their seats to look at the kid sitting right behind me. He opened his mouth to say something, then suddenly leaned over and grabbed something on the floor.

"Sorry, just found it." He said giving me a wide grin that slightly resembled a jack-o-lantern. I looked down by my desk where I had left my book bag. It lay on its side, a few folders sticking out of the top and one laying open a few inches away from the bag itself, papers surrounding it. I quickly scrambled to gather the papers. _Last weeks homework, worksheets, assigned reading sheets…where's the homework for today?!_

I started panicking, riffling quickly through my papers, praying I hadn't left it at home. There was a soft chuckle from behind me, and I froze. I turned around and looked back and forth between the smirk on Brent's face and the now wrinkled paper in his hands.

"Looks like someone forgot to do their homework."

"I can't believe he did that to you!" Both Grace and I were in the girl's bathroom. It was right before lunch and I was already starting to get a major headache. As many kids in our school know, Ms. Kendal doesn't tolerate late work, so I had managed to get a nice big zero on an assignment that was a good portion of this trimester's grade.

"Grace, let it go… I bet I can make it up some how… extra credit or something…" I sighed massaging my temples.

"Here, take these." I dropped my hands from my forehead, gawking at the medication in Grace's hand.

"You know we're not supposed to have medication on our person during school! More or less, why do you even have it with you?" I whispered. Grace just rolled her eyes and put the Advil in my right hand.

"Sorry, after what the nurse did to me at my old school, I don't want to trust anyone else with my medicine." I hadn't heard the exact story about what happened, mostly because I didn't want to ask her directly, but from the infinite gossip that flies around the inside of our school doors, I had pieced together that Grace had transferred from her old school because she had eaten something that had something she was deathly allergic to in it. Apparently the nurse wouldn't let her use her Epi Pen, and call 911. It wasn't until she vomited and passed out in her Biology class that someone called an ambulance.

"Are you gonna take it or just stand there?" She asked, turning towards the other mirror, redoing her blonde streaked ponytail. I looked back at my own reflection, and then downed the pills dry.

"Seriously, Cathy, are you gonna let Brent take credit for your work?" She asked me again, grabbing her book and lunch bag off the sink counter.

"He's a jock, and I'm a…" I cringed as I said it, "I'm a geek. I can't even look certain people in the eye; more or less call them out for doing something wrong." I sighed leaning against a stall. The loud hum of students outside the restroom was beginning to settle down, when suddenly two girls in tight fitting clothing and thick perfume that made me light headed, walked through the door. I looked back at Grace and her jaw line hardened. Grabbing her by the wrist, I led her to the door, as the two girls continued to giggle and whisper. As the door closed behind them, the explosion of laughter was hard for both of us to ignore.

"Hey Grace, you ever head of a game called "The World"?" Outdoor lunch was one of the saving graces of our high school.

"Yeah, I used to play a bunch of MMORPGs before Pluto's Kiss, but there was only a beta of that game floating around at the time. I haven't played it yet, but I've heard its pretty good," she took a bite out of her turkey sandwich, "why you ask?" she mumbled, her mouth still full of food.

"I got a new computer yesterday, one of the ALTIMIT ones, and I purchased a copy of it online."

Grace nearly choked.

"Really?! Can I come over and play? I've only read about it, but I've never actually tried it! Isn't it neat how you can use PS2 controllers instead of having to buy new ones-" She stopped when I snapped my fingers.

"Just remembered. I gotta go to Game Stop and buy a pair of those Face Mount Display goggles," I said, taking a bite of my tuna wrap, "I've been told that's the best way to play. You have some of your own?" Grace nodded, a wide smile on her face.

"My brother has a few personal games that use it. It's sad really that all online games except for the world are now gone. He said first person shooters just aren't the same with AIs." I nodded. Grace tended to be the type of person who could ramble off on a specific subject for hours, though when the topic was bad, it was even longer.

"So you wanna come with me after school? I might even treat you to something nice at Angel Mort if I have enough money left on my card." Grace practically squealed at the idea. I stood up, pulling my wind breaker tighter around me.

"Come on time to head back." I said offering Grace a hand. She groaned and rolled her eyes.

"You do realize that I'd rather have gone through Deadly Flash than deal with Mr. Thompson." I laughed lobbing my trash at the waste bin. It bounced on the edge and landed off to the side.

"Damn! Still no better than I was in middle school." I snickered, picking it up and throwing it back, this time making sure it went in.

"Well, see you after school!" I shouted back to Grace as I ran for the school building. Ms. Shlifske would kill you if you were a few seconds late. Mr. Thompson was a little more relaxed about entrance time. She waved back, and at that point, I couldn't care less about my stolen Lit. assignment or whatever the rest of the day had to throw at me.

I was really beginning to like the idea of slashing into monsters after a hard day in hell.


End file.
